How Honest Are You?

Today’s post comes from the “OMG, I Love This” category. HONEST® Tea just finished its fifth annual social experiment this summer examining whether people are honest when no one is looking. Or at least when they think no one is looking.

They set up kiosks in all 50 states throughout the country stocked with cold HONEST beverages. There were no people stationed at the booth, just a sign that asked that $1 be paid using the honor system. Therefore it would have been just as easy for consumers to pay $1 for a bottle or steal the bottle.

Meanwhile, HONEST employees were nearby, keeping tabs on who paid for beverages and who didn’t, as well as other physical characteristics.

So what do you think happened?

Alabama and Hawaii had perfect honesty scores, as 100% of the people who took a beverage chose to pay for it. They were followed by Indiana and Maine which each had an impressive 99%. On the other hand, Washington, D.C., had the lowest ranking with participants being honest 80% of the time. In fact, the founder of HONEST had his bicycle stolen while they were doing the experiment there!

Now that I think about it, the lowest honesty rating in Washington D.C. is really not all that shocking, now is it?

Overall, Americans were honest 92% of the time. Women showed higher levels of honesty than men. Interestingly, people with longer hair were more honest than those with short hair. Blondes were more honest than brunettes and men who were clean-shaven were five percentage points more honest than men with a five o’clock shadow.

To top it off, the money from this fun social experiment will be donated to FoodCorps, a national nonprofit organization that strives to give all youth an enduring relationship with healthy food.

So here’s a helpful hint: If you see what seems to be an unmanned HONEST beverage kiosk, you might want to grab a dollar out of your wallet before taking the beverage and walking away. Just saying.

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